Temperature Dependence of Fluorescence Decay Time and Emission Spectrum of Bismuth Germanate

Bismuth germanate has become an increasingly popular replacement for NaI(Tl) scintillators in recent years, mainly due to its higher detection efficiency. However, its scintillation efficiency and fluorescence decay time are strongly temperature dependent. Optimum performance of detector systems which employ BGO crystals depends on knowledge of the BGO pulse shape and intensity and its emission spectrum at the operating temperature of the detector. Measurements of these quantities are presented over the temperature range -47°C to ± 111°C. Although the emission spectrum shifts only slightly over this temperature range, the scintillation efficiency and fluorescence decay time are strongly temperature dependent. In addition to the usefulness of these data for optimizing detector design, the results imply that luminescence quenching in BGO cannot be characterized by a single thermal activation to a radiationless transition but that a more complex model is required to characterize the light output from BGO crystals.